Fresh As the First Time I Read It

Something Fresh by P.G. Wodehouse

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I dearly love this book and its author, so take that into consideration when you read the review.  I also used it for a dramatic reading in college (just happened to see the notes for that in my paperback copy) and managed to get through what I thought was the funniest part without breaking up.  To my best recollection, the listeners did not fall over in paroxysms of hilarity, but I may have been numbed to their reaction in order to get through it.

Yes, it's as funny as it was the first time. 

The Hon. Freddie Threepwood is engaged to Aline Peters, but his father (Clarence, the third Earl of Emsworth) has just "stolen" her father's prized scarab in a typical fit of forgetfulness. He now wants to retrieve some letters he wrote to Joan Valentine when she was on the stage but his go-between, R. Jones, has decided to milk more out of him than the 500 pounds he didn't need to give Joan because she said she threw the letters away.  Joan is an old friend of Aline and promises to help her retrieve the "stolen" scarab, however, Joan's new friend, Ashe Marson has been hired by Aline's father for the same dark purpose.  George Emerson fell in love with Aline on board ship and is using his friendship with the Hon. Freddie to get close to her again.  Got all that, or do you need a diagram?  They all convene (save R. Jones) at Blandings Castle where they land under the beetling brow and jaundiced eye of Freddie's father's secretary, the Efficient Baxter.

Wodehouse tackles the theme of equality of the sexes with a deft hand one would not expect from an author of that time period (ah, but it's comedy, so he can get away with that).  Sadly, it's not developed fully and it does wobble at the end when Joan succumbs to Ashe's petition for marriage.  We don't get to see her fall in love with him the way we see him fall for her and her sudden craving for dullness in place of adventure doesn't ring true.  We do get to see Aline fall in love with George and we are with her when she does.  She is obstinate in her keeping the engagement to the Hon. Freddie in the face of George's high-handedness, but begins her melt when he realizes that it rightly doesn't work to badger the one you love into loving you.  Her subsequent interview with her fiance gives her the opportunity to view what life would be like married to a complete ass.  The romance of living in an English castle among the peerage loses its appeal. 

One of Wodehouse's earliest successes, Something New (or Something Fresh) introduces the third Earl of Emsworth and the gang at Blandings.  It is also rich in over a dozen Biblical references and about 40 other literary and Classical references (at least according to the annotations I found online).  Unlike the Bertie and Jeeves stories, it is narrated by what is normally called an omniscient narrator, but you can see an inkling of Bertie in the narrator's casual forgetfulness as well as the Biblical saltings (Bertie having won a Bible verse contest of some kind in his youth).  The novel also demonstrates the winning formula Wodehouse finally developed and delightfully abused for another 70 books or so: something needs to be stolen (whether scarab, silver cow creamer, painting, manuscript, or necklace) and returned to its true owner, true love will out, and the Hon. Freddie and his chinless comrades will never get married.  Although Wodehouse admitted to writing the same story over and over, it's the details of characters, the lovely language, and the absurd slow-motion description of slapstick that make each successive novel something fresh.



View all my reviews

What On Earth Is a "Freak" Dinner?!

The Coming of Bill by P.G. Wodehouse

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
Wodehouse apparently dabbled in domestic romance in the early days. You can almost see him wrestling with his sense of humor in this, trying to keep it straight. The ubiquitous prize fighter is there, the foolish rich folk and the fearsome middle-aged female are all there. The typical Wodehouse way of describing a baby (beautiful to the parents but generally giving the appearance of a boiled egg to others) is there. He's found the elements of his voice, but hasn't polished him the way he does later. I read once that Wodehouse would type up his stories and tape them up on the wall around his office. When he wasn't typing, he'd walk from one page to another trying to find a way to improve on what he'd written. When the pages were perfect, they came down. I mean, does any writer bother with that now? They probably figure that's what editors are for.

I wondered, of course, why I'm bothering to read something that just isn't funny (although the humor cracks through here and there) and then I started looking on this as a period piece and, finally, as a satire of our own times. Here is a story of how money ruins happiness. We get stories like this all the time, we have maxims like "Money doesn't buy happiness" but in this story, too much money actually kills happiness. Ruth and Kirk are happy in their relationship and with their (plainly average) child until a windfall inheritance changes Ruth back into the socialite. Kirk is forced to endure dinner parties with boring people whose only distinguishing feature is the amount of money they are worth. Ruth's sister-in-law gets caught up in the fever of wealth and splurges beyond her husband's capacity to keep up on "freak" dinners and baubles. No one is content with "just enough."

This reminds me of the $2,000 shower curtain mentality of today's (well, back a bit farther than today) nouveau riche. "Just enough" is just plainly not enough.

And that's where people get into trouble. Fortunately, we have lovely fiction stories to show us the way, eh? Riiiiight. One wonders if Wodehouse was seeing this in his day, if he had friends or acquaintances whose lives were blighted by too much of the ready too fast. At some point, the grievous rift between Kirk and Ruth seemed so real (despite the grotesque exaggerations) and so deftly described, that it seemed Wodehouse had personal knowledge of this as well.

Still, I'm glad he learned to polish each page until they gleamed with a laugh or a delightful turn-of-phrase.


View all my reviews.

Royal Revolution

The Prince And Betty by P.G. Wodehouse

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars

Kindle Edition
Wow! What a little socialist Wodehouse was! And how much more violent his books were in the early days! Of course, because it's Wodehouse, the actual violence against the lead characters is kept to a minimum, but OMG! he almost killed one off! And his characters are trying to clean up what can only be described as a section of Hell's Kitchen on the east side!

After becoming Prince For a Day, our Mr. Maude rejects la vie royale once it's pointed out by the woman he loves that he's being a patsy. Then the story switches back to being about her (she started the book). Wodehouse gets you interested in one story and then jerks you out of it to another, leaving you wondering and wondering. But I thought this story was about ...

One thing I have to say about these early books is that Wodehouse appeared to be a big fan of boxing. Hardly a book goes by without a match or a retired boxer cropping up.


View all my reviews.

Oops, forgot this one

Piccadilly Jim by P.G. Wodehouse

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Premises don't get much more convoluted than this. It took 20 minutes just to set up the explanation to my husband. Then it all unravels at once, to the consternation of the private investigator and, perhaps, the reader, who would like it to go on a bit longer.

Jim has to adopt a false name to prevent the typical Wodehousian redhead he's fallen in love with from finding out what a rotter he is (rather, was). Then he has to adopt his true identity as a false one at her urging. Women! Honestly.


View all my reviews.

Where's School Bully?

The Pothunters and Other School Stories by P.G. Wodehouse

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Reading this just takes me back to Palin/Jones and "Tomkinson's Schooldays." Oh, and "If" - of course. What with all the sports (boxing, track) and the vocab, it's hard to picture these characters as kids. They sound more like college (oh, sorry, it is "college") - I mean, university students. I don't think it was adequately explained why Plunkett felt obliged to enjoy his crafty pipe-smoke not only out-of-bounds, but on the property of the crankiest anti-trespasser in town. Lovely period piece!
The sports reminded me of my dad, who ran track in high school and wrestled in college. Although his experiences came 20 years later, it was probably pretty similar (making weight, winning favor from the parental units by competing, etc.).
I upgraded the stars from 2 to 3 when I realized that I was so absorbed in the story, I didn't want to stop reading even to drive home for lunch. It occurred to me after I reluctantly mounted my trusty Corolla that I could turn the speech function on and listen to the Kindle mangle the prose. Ha ha! You should hear the program try to render a drawled "We-e-e-e-ell." And where a section was separated by a string of asterixes, it read each one separately! And the Writers' Guild is worried this will supplant a performed audiobook?!



View all my reviews.
Looking at the Penguin cover I wonder why they're picturing a game of rugger when none occurs in the story ... ("dot dot dot")

What I Read on My Vacation (on the Kindle)

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
After consulting with the Visiting Professor of Florin Studies here at Lander University, I feel I will have to read S. Morgenstern's original papers before I can make any definitive statements about Goldman's rewrite.
I just hope his son recovered from the description in the book. I'm not at all surprised his marriage dissolved, considering the autobiographical scenes. As far as the Kindle went, although all other books worked fine, this one gave me problems. The Kindle simply refused to remember where I had left off reading after some point. It was difficult to find my last location, unless I memorized the location at the bottom, which is not that much different from how I handle books if I haven't got a bookmark.
This reminds me, one thing that makes library books an improvement on the Kindle: I can slip my room key into the date due pocket when I go to the pool! I was at a total loss of where to keep my room key this week! At last, I put it in the pocket of my cosmetic bag which I later used to tote the 50 SPF sunscreen when I went to lay out while housekeeping tidied the room. I didn't want to carry that much, but there you are. If I'm just going for a swim, the key and a paperback is all I need. The paperback keeps me company (and hides the key) until I've dried off enough to go back to the room.




A Damsel in Distress by P.G. Wodehouse

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
Early Wodehouse. Not sure why he thought a 48 year old man would be a total dodderer (along the lines of the third earl of Emsworth).




Adventures of Sally by P.G. Wodehouse

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
What a period piece! Sally is a dance hostess who finally comes into her fortune. Dance hostessing/taxi dancing has fallen by the wayside as careers go. I met a woman in NYC who went undercover as a taxi dancer to write an expose. Wodehouse also gives us a view of putting together a theatrical venture in the 1920s, what with the talentless beauties who get lead roles by sleeping with the producer - that doesn't happen anymore! Imagine that it only took $5,000 to put on a show!




Three Men and a Maid by P.G. Wodehouse

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
I liked that it didn't have a pat solution. In later years I think Wodehouse made everything very, very tidy and while it was always very satisfying, this ending is more realistic. The heroine discovers that the man she thought was heroic, wasn't. She went from liking him and then didn't like him and in the end his only recourse is to wear her down. I've had this tried on me, in fact.


View all my reviews.